Screenwriter-director Saulė Bliuvaitė’s debut film Toxic, which competed at Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival, is a poignant coming-of-age story that avoids clichés as its 13-year-old protagonists come to terms with their bodies and identities during a hot Lithuanian summer.
Mock invasion by the Udija state (Additional scene from 'The Russians are coming: Lithuania')
Marija (Vesta Matulytė) and Kristina (Ieva Rupeikaitė) are two young girls who form a friendship when they become aspiring students at a modeling school that promises them an escape from their bleak reality.
“When I was 13, it was very popular for very, very young teenage girls, 12-13 years old, to try to sign up with modeling agencies,” Bliuvaitė tells Variety. “Girls from the Baltic countries were very popular. You know, pale skin and thin figures. My own experience is that I was going to this casting, standing in these really long lines in the mall. We all look the same in this girl factory.”
“I was actually signed up with the modeling agency. I was really skinny at the time – I was 14 or something. And I remember the lady measuring me and saying, you know, you need to lose weight here, and she started drawing lines on my body, like which parts are too big. And I remember my mom’s eyes. She looked at her and thought, ‘Where are these big parts that I need to lose?’ When I look back at it now, it was a pretty tough experience for a very young teenage girl.”
